FC Barcelona won their 21st League title with a 1-1 draw at Levante with a bit of tricky performance. This was not one of the usual flowing performance by the Barca side, but it was good enough to complete a rare hat-trick of League title. The last team which did that was the dream team of Barcelona back in the 90s. A goal from Keita gave Barca the lead (unexpectedly), but Levante equalised after a complete misunderstanding between Valdes and Pique. We went into the match needing only one point to win the league and precisely did that. Messi would have been a bit unlucky not to have cut the Pichichi lead. Now Guardiola could rest a majority of stars in the coming match and shift the focus to the Wemble job. Guardiola made some changes to his usual eleven. Iniesta and Pedro started from the bench. So we had Messi, Villa and Afellay in the front attacking trio. The midfield had Keita, Busquets and Xavi. The defense had Alves, Pique, Mascherano and boy oh! boy our King Abidal. 5000 Barcelona fans took the travel to Valencia to watch this match.
The playing surface was quite tricky(ok, I am being a bit generous there - it was pathetic) and in the 2nd minute Afellay slipped after Messi slipped him into a great position, that took the chance away. From the very start we start dominating possession, Levante players never saw ball for more than a few seconds. In the 11th minute Levante had kind of two half chances, both coming from headers but the header wasn't good enough to trouble Victor Valdes. In the 17th minute Levante went in for another counter but this time it went pretty wide of the post. Barca was yet to get a shot in the match and looked pretty much disinterested in getting that done. In the 28th minute suddenly the sleeping barcelona side just woke up and scored the goal. Xavi played a delightful ball spotting Keita's forward run and Keita finishing header was simply brilliant. Ok, after the goal we went back to sleeping and in the 31st minute Abidal has to make a brilliant intervention to prevent any danger. In the 37th minute Abidal started a move by playing some neat one-two with first Busquets and then Keita and then eventually tried his luck with the sot, but that was straight at the keeper. But Abidal's movement has been splandid and that's sweet news. In the 39th minute Villa tried to curl a shot from the edge of the box, but the ball went wide of the far post. In the 41st minute Levante equalised with a freakish goal. Pique miskick a regulation clearance and that mistake took the ball away from an on rushing Valdez and Caicedo made no difference with a wide open goal infront of him. In the 44th minute Messi was brought donw just outside box and was awarded a free kick, but Messi couldn't make the most out of it. In the 45th minute Levante had another great chance this time Caceido slipped in the box, luckily for us.
The first half performance was a disgrace, especially bloody disrespectful to the 5000 odd travelling Barcelona fans. Levante should have considered themselved unlucky not to be infront at half time. Everyone expected the second half performance to be better. We looked much better from the start of second half with Alves and Messi bot almost getting through on goal. In the 58th minute Messi got past three defenders and got through on goal but his shot hit the post . Had that gone in it would have been the goal of the season. In the 62nd minute Abidal was taken off and was replaced by Fontas. In the 72nd minute Messi went in another mazy run skipped past four challenges, but his shot went agonisingly close of the far post. In the 86th minute Pedro was brought in for a pathetic David Villa. Both sides looked very much happy with the 1-1 scoreline and it was a bit like the Chile vs Spain match in the world cup - Barcelona never gave the ball away and Levante nor was interested.
This was one of the most boring match I have evr watched. Guardiola in the build up of this match said that he was taking this match seriously, but the way our players played in first half, they never cared that much. The performance of Abidal was a welcome change in a rather ridiculous match. Messi who was unlucky not to have scored two of the best goals of the season and he now have to watch Ronaldo getting away more in the Pichichi standings. We were lucky not to have gone behind at the half time but after the break we completely controlled possession. Pique gave a horro show in defense and we seriously hope he get over this as early as possible. The player who made me mad the most was David Villa. He would have done himself pretty good with some goal, but looked never interested. Afellay did try but this match once again exposed his one -dimensional play, which very much depend on pace. But in the end we have rounded off the La Liga title, our second title of the season - first was the Spanish Super Cup. So eventhough there was a lack of desire to win, everyone will forgive them considering what they have given over the season. Now it's time for some celebration, and keep them going throughout the night.
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